Mary of Modena (Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; 05 October [O.S. 25 September] 1658 – 7 May [O.S. 26 April] 1718) was Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of King James II and VII. A staunch Catholic, Mary was married, in 1673, to James, Duke of York, the younger brother and heir of England's incument King, Charles II.[1][2] Uninterested in politics, she loved James, and bore him two children who survived to adulthood: Princess Louise Mary and the Jacobite claimant to the English, Scottish and Irish thrones, James Francis Edward Stuart, known to history as "The Old Pretender".[3]

Born a Princess of the Italian Duchy of Modena, Mary is best-remembered for the controversial birth of James Francis Edward, her only surviving son, whom the majority of the English public believed to have been a changeling, brought into the birth-chamber in a warming-pan, thus perpetuating King James II's Catholic dynasty. Although this accusation was completely false, and the subsequent privy council investigation only re-affirmed this, James Francis Edward's birth was a contributing factor to the Glorious Revolution, in which King James II was deposed by his daughter Mary and her husband William III of Orange.

Exiled to France, the "Queen over the water"—as Jacobites (followers of James II) dubbed Mary—lived with her husband and children in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, courtesy of Louis XIV of France. Mary was popular among Louis XIV's courtiers; however, James was considered a bore. In widowhood, Mary spent a great-deal of time with the nuns at the Convent of Chaillot, where she and her daughter stayed each summer. In 1701, when James II died, James Francis Edward became King in the eyes of Jacobites. As he was too young to assume the nominal reins of government, Queen Dowager Mary acted as regent until he reached the age of 16. When "James III" was expelled from France as part of the Treaty of Utrecht, Mary—who had just lost Princess Louise Mary to smallpox—was left without any family in France. She died of cancer in 1718.

Early life (1658 - 1673)

Mary Beatrice d'Este, the elder child of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena, and his consort Laura Martinozzi was born on 5 October 1658 NS in Modena, Modena.[2] Her only sibling, Francesco, succeeded their father as Duke upon his death in 1662, the year Mary turned 4;[4] Mary and Francesco's mother Laura was strict with her children, and acted as regent of the duchy until her son came of age.[5][6] Mary's education—unlike that of future stepdaughters Anne and Mary—was excellent;[7] she spoke French and Italian fluently, had a good knowledge of Latin and later mastered English.[8][9]

Mary, whom a contemporary described as "tall, and admirably shaped", was sought after by Lord Peterborough as a spouse to his master Charles II of England's brother and heir, James, Duke of York.[10][11][12] The Regent, of whom Lord Peterborough wrote, "extraordinary woman", was not initially forthcoming with a reply to Peterborough's proposal, hoping, according to the French ambassador, for a grander match with eleven-year-old Charles II of Spain.[13][14] Whatever the reason for the Regent's initial reluctance, she duly consented to the match, despite Mary's pleas to be allowed enter the Convent of the Visitations, where her former governess resided.[15] James and Mary were married by proxy on 30 September 1673 NS.[15]

Louis XIV of France, because Modena was firmly within his sphere of influence, zealously endorsed Mary's candidature, and therefore greeted her warmly in Paris, en route to England, giving her an £8,000 brooch.[16] Her English reception was much cooler. Parliament and the English public—who were predominately Anglican—reacted poorly to the news of a Catholic marriage, fearing it was a "Papist" plot against the country.[17] The latter branded the Duchess of York—as Mary was thereafter known as until her husband's accession—the "Pope's daughter" and parliament threatened to have the marriage annulled.[18] King Charles, whom the Duchess of York grew quite fond of, suspended parliament until 7 January 1674 OS, thus ensuring the marriage would be honoured, and therefore the reputation of his House of Stuart safe.[11]

Duchess of York (1673 - 1685)

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Household

James, Duke of York (King James II from 1685), in a portrait by Sir Peter Lely. "I became very fond of my husband", Mary recollected as a widow, "and my affection for him increased with every year we lived together".[3]

The Duke of York, an avowed Catholic, was twenty-five years older than his bride, scarred by smallpox and afflicted with a stutter.[19] Mary, accompanied by her mother and her uncle, Prince Rinaldo, whom she later had made a cardinal, caught first sight of her husband on 23 November 1673 OS, the day of their second marriage ceremony.[20][21] Although James was pleased with his bride, at first, by her own admission, Mary was not, bursting into tears every time she saw him.[22][23] Regardless, she soon warmed to James.[3] From another marriage, James had two daughters: Lady Mary and Lady Anne, who were introduced to Mary by James with the words, "I have brought you a new play-fellow".[24] Despite the fact the Duchess of York was willing to play games with her, Anne, unlike her sister Mary, disliked her new stepmother.[25] Anne would later prove instrumental in falsely discrediting the legitimacy of her half-brother James Francis Edward in the eyes of Lady Mary, whom the Duchess of York affectionately termed "dear Lemon".[26][27]

Having been given £20,000 worth of jewellery upon her Modenese marriage, the Duchess of York received £5,000 per annum spending money and her own household, headed by Carey Fraser, Countess of Peterborough, frequented by ladies of her husband's selection: Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox—Charles II's discarded mistress—and Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch.[11][28][29][30] The Duchess of York loathed gambling; however, her ladies compelled her to do so—losing exorbitant sums of money in the process—because "if she refrained, it might be taken ill".[31] The Duchess of York gave birth to a girl, Catherine Laura, named after her mother and Queen Catherine, on 10 January 1675 OS, the beginning of a string of children that died in infancy.[32]

Popish plot and exile

The Duchess of York's Catholic secretary, Edward Colman, was, in 1678, falsely implicated in a fictitious plot against the King by Dr. Titus Oates.[33] The plot, known as the Popish Plot, lead to the Exclusionist movement, headed by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, which sought to debar the Catholic Duke of York from the throne.[34][35] Their reputation in tatters, the Yorks were begrudgingly exiled to Brussels, a domain of the King of Spain, ostensibly to visit Lady Mary—since 1677 Princess of Orange as the wife of Prince William III.[36][37][38] Accompanied by the Lady Anne and her not yet three-year-old daughter Isabella, the Duchess of York had been, since the birth of James's bastard by his new mistress Catherine Sedley last spring, "melancholy".[39] Her spirits were briefly revived by a visit from her mother, who, dispossed by her son Francesco II, was living in Rome.[40] A report that King Charles was griveously ill sent the Yorks back to England post-haste, fearing the King's bastard, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, commander of England's armed forces, with the support of the Exclusionists, who held a majority in the House of Commons, may usurp the crown if Charles died in their absence.[41][42] Charles survived, but, feeling the Yorks returned to court too soon, sent James and Mary—without the Ladies Anne and Isabella—to Edinburgh, where they stayed on-and-off for the next three years.[43][44] Lodging in the dilapidated Holyrood Palace, the Yorks were recalled to London in February 1680, only to return again that autumn, this time on a more honourable footing: James was created King's Commissioner to Scotland.[45][46] Separated from Lady Isabella, Mary sank into a state of sadness, compounded by the passing of the Exclusion bill in the Commons.[47][48] The Lady Isabella, thus far the only one of Mary's children to survive infancy, died in February 1681, plunging Mary into a religious mania, which worried her physician.[49] At the same time as the news of Isabella's death reached Holyrood, Mary's mother was falsely accused of offering £10,000 for the murder of the King by a pamphleteer, who was executed for his efforts by order of the King.[49]

The Exclusionist reaction that followed the Popish plot had died down by May 1682.[50] Exclusionist-dominated Parliament, suspended since March 1681, never again met in the reign of Charles II.[51] Therefore, the Duke and Duchess of York returned to England in May, and the Duchess gave birth to Princess Charlotte Mary in August 1682; her death three weeks later, according to the French ambassador, robbed James of "hope that any child of his can live"—all James's sons by Anne Hyde, his first wife, had died in infancy.[52] James's melancholy was dispelled by his revival in popularity following the Rye House Plot, a plot that would have placed Monmouth on the throne as Lord Protector after killing James and King Charles.[53] The revival was, in fact, so strong that, in 1674, James was re-admitted to the Privy Council, after an absence of eleven years.[54]

Queen (1685 - 1689)

Mary II of England, whom Mary of Modena affectionately termed "dear Lemon", in deference to her title Princess of Orange, believed James Francis Edward was a changeling thrust upon the nation by her father, in order to perpetuate his Catholic dynasty.[27][55] Paiting after Sir Peter Lely.

Despite all the furore over Exclusionism, James ascended to his brother's thrones painlessly upon his death, on 6 February 1685 OS, possibly because the aforesaid alternative could provoke another civil war.[56] Mary sincerely mourned Charles, recalling in later life, "He was always kind to me."[57] Mary and James's £119,000 joint coronation ceremony, occurring on 23 April OS, Saint George's day, was meticulously planned.[58][59] Precedents were sought for Mary's coronation because a splendid joint coronation had not occurred since the ceremony performed for Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon.[58] James, taking into account the age gap between his wife and him, provisioned for Mary's widowhood in May 1685 by ensuring that after his death she would receive as jointure an annual allowance of £50,000 and free use of St. James's and Richmond Palaces.[60]

The Queen's health had still not recovered from the death of Lady Isabella. So much so, in fact, that the Tuscan envoy reported to Florence that "general opinion opinion turns [for Mary's successor] in the direction of the Princess, Your Highness's daughter".[61][62] France, too, was preparing for the Queen's imminent demise, putting forward as its candidate for James's new wife the Duke of Enghien's daughter.[61] Despite her best efforts, the Queen had failed to make her brother, the Duke of Modena, marry the former, Anna Maria Luisa of Tuscany.[63]

In February 1787, the Queen, then melancholical from the King's affair with Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, moved into new Christopher Wren-designed £13,000 apartments in Whitehall, which had been home to a Catholic chapel since December 1686.[64][65][66] Because the palace's renovation was thus far unfinished, the King received ambassadors in her suite, much to the Queen's chagrin.[67] Five months later, shortly after the marriage talks with Tuscany collapsed, the Queen's mother, Duchess Laura, died, plunging the whole English court into mourning.[68] Duchess Laura left Mary "a considerable sum of cash" and some jewellery.[69] Sensing discontent with James's Catholic regime, William III of Orange, James's son-in-law, used the death of Mary's mother as a guise to send his half-uncle Count Zuylestein to England, ostensibly to condole Queen Mary, but really to spy.[55][70]

In late 1687, having visited Bath in the hope its waters would aid conception, Queen Mary became pregnant.[71] When the pregnancy became public knowledge shortly before Christmas, Catholics rejoyced, but Protestants, who tolerated James's Catholic government simply because he had no Catholic heir, were intensely upset.[72][73] The Protestant disillusion came to a head when the child's—christened James Francis Edward—sex became known, when many Protestants, in order to prevent the perpetuation of James II's Catholic dynasty, chose to believe the child was illegitimate.[74] Popular opinion purported that James Francis Edward was sneaked into the birth chamber as substitute to the Queen's real, but stillborn, child, despite the fact the room was intentionally packed full of 200 witnesses, both Protestant and Catholic.[74][75] Coaxed by her sister, Mary, Princess of Orange, in the Netherlands, Princess Anne of Denmark, James's younger daughter, answered a memorandum of 18 questions regarding James Francis Edward's birth; Anne's answers, biased and unreliable, falsely convinced Princess Mary that her father had thrust a changeling upon the nation.[55] Count Zuylestein, returing to the Netherlands shortly after the birth, reaffirmed Anne's findings.[55]

Issued by seven leading Whig nobles, the invitation for William to invade England, assuring that "nineteen parts of twenty of the people throughout the kingdom" wished for an intervention, signalled the beginning of a process that culminated in James II's deposition called the Glorious Revolution, which deprived James Francis Edward of his right to the English throne, on the grounds he was not the King's real son and, later, because he was a Catholic.[76] England in the hands of William of Orange's 15,000-strong army, James and Mary went into exile in France, where they stayed at the expense of King Louis XIV, who supported the Jacobite cause.[76][77]

As Mary II and William III & II ascended the English and Scottish thrones, Mary of Modena, in the eyes of Williamites and the parliaments, ceased to be Queen of England on 11 December 1688 OS and of Scotland on 11 May 1689 OS, concurrent with her husband's formal deposition. James II, however, backed by Louis XIV of France, still considered himself king by divine right and maintained it was not within parliament's prerogative to depose a monarch.[78][79]

In exile, James and Mary lived in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Louis XIV having given them exclusive use of that property, where they set up court-in-exile.[77][80] Mary became a popular fixture at Louis XIV's court at Versailles, where Madame de Sévigné, a prominent diarist, acclaimed Mary for her "distuingished bearing and her quick wit". Questions of precedence, however, marred Mary's relations with the Dauphine of France, Maria Anna of Bavaria.[81] Because Mary was accorded the privileges and rank of a queen, Maria Anna was outranked by her, and therefore she refused to see her, etiquette being a sensitive issue at Versailles.[82] Relations with the rest of the royal family, too, were not helped by the birth of Mary's daughter Louise Mary, who became the premier princess at court, ranking immediately after the only French princess at the time, the Dauphine herself, which made Louis XIV's countless illegitimate daughters upset.[81] Despite this, Louis XIV and his secret wife, Madame de Maintenon, developed an intense friendship with Mary, but not with James, who was generally viewed with disdain by most of the French court.[81][83]

Initially supported by Irish Catholics in his cause to regain the thrones, James launched an expedition in Ireland in March 1689, an expedidition that he abandoned upon his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.[84] During his campaign in Ireland, Mary assiduously supported her husband's cause throughout the British Isles, ensuring the sending of three French supply ships to Bantry Bay and of £2,000 to Jacobite rebels in Dundee, financed by the sale of her jewellery.[85] Money problems plagued the Stuart court-in-exile, despite a large pension from Louis XIV of 50,000 livres, greatly worrying Mary, who tried her best to assist those of her husband's followers living in squalor.[77][86][87] Mary also encouraged her children to give part of their pocket money to Jacobite refugees.[88]

Estensi succession

News of the collapse of James's invasion of Ireland, which survived another year after his departure, was remedied by news of her brother the Duke of Modena's marriage to Margherita Maria Farnese of Parma.[90] When, in 1695, Mary's brother died, the House of Este was left with one progenitor, Cardinal-Duke Rinaldo.[91] Queen Mary, concerned for the dynasty's future, urged the Cardinal-Duke to resign his cardinalate, "for the good of the people and for the perpetuation of the sovereign house of Este", successfully.[92] Chosen as bride to Duke Rinaldo, Princess Charlotte Felicitas of Brunswick-Lüneburg was thought by Queen Mary "of an easy disposition best suited to [the Duke]".[92]

A bone of contention, however, arose over the Queen's inheritance and dowry.[93] Duke Rinaldo refused to release the former, and left the latter £15,000 in arrears.[89] In 1700, five years later, the Duke finally paid the Queen her dowry; her inheritance, however, remained sequestered, and relations with Modena worsened again when Rinaldo allied himself with Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, an enemy of Louis XIV.[94] After James II's death, James Francis Edward advised the Queen to sue the Duke for her inheritance, to no avail.[94]

Regency

In March 1701, James II suffered a stroke while hearing mass at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, leaving him partially paralysed.[96] Fagon, Louis XIV's personal physician, recommend the waters of Bourbon-l'Archambault, to cure the King's paralysis.[97] The waters, however, had little effect, and James II died of a seizure on 16 September 1701.[98] Louis XIV, in contravention of the Peace of Ryswick, declared James Francis Edward King of England, Ireland and Scotland as James III and VIII, irritating King William III and II, who had ruled alone since the death of his wife, Mary II.[99][100] Because James Francis Edward was minor, Queen Mary, though uninterested in politics, acted as regent for her son, having being appointed as such by James II, presiding over a regency council.[101] Before his death, James II expressed his wish that Mary's regency would last no longer than their son's 18th birthday.[102]

Decked in black for the remainder of her life, Queen Mary's first act as regent was to disseminate a manifesto, outlining James Francis Edward's claims.[103] It was largely ignored in England; in Scotland, however, the confederate Lords sent Lord Belhaven to Saint-Germain, to convince the Queen to surrender to them custody of James Francis Edward and accede to his conversion to Protestantism, in order to facilitate his accession to the English throne upon William III's death.[104] The Queen-Regent was not swayed by Belhaven's argument, so a compromise was reached: James Francis Edward shall limit the number of Roman Catholic priests in England and promise not to tamper with the established Church of England and, in exchange, the confederate Lords would do all in their power to block the passing of the Hanoverian succession in Scottish parliament.[105] When William III died in March 1702, Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, declared for James Francis Edward at Inverness.[106] Soon after, Lovat travelled to the court-in-exile at Saint-Germain, and begged the Queen-Regent to allow her son to travel to Scotland, where he intended to raise 15,000 men.[106] As with Belhaven, she refused to part with James Francis Edward, and the venture was doomed to failure.[106] Mary's regency ceased with her son's reaching of the age of 16.[107]

Having wished to become a nun in her youth, Queen Mary sought refuge from the stresses of exile at the Convent of the Visitations, Chaillot, near Paris, where she befriend Louis XIV's penitent mistress Louise de La Vallière.[108] Here, Mary often stayed with her daughter for prolonged periods during the summer.[109] It was here, too, in 1711 that Queen Mary found out that, as part of the embryonic Treaty of Utrecht, James Francis Edward would lose Louis XIV's explicit recognition and be forced to leave France.[109] The next year, when James Francis Edward was expelled and Louise Mary died of smallpox, Mary was devastated, close friend Madame de Maintenon reporting, "[the Queen of England is] a model of desolation".[110] Thus deprived of her family, Queen Mary lived out the rest of her days at Chaillot and Saint-Germain in virtual poverty, unable to travel by her own means because all her horses had died and she could not afford to replace them.[111] Dying from cancer in 1718, Mary was remembered fondly be her French contemporaries, three of whom, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, the Duke of Saint-Simon and the Marquis of Dangeau, deemed her a "saint".[112][113] Mary's remains were interred in Chaillot.[114]

From LoveToKnow 1911

MARY OF MODENA MARIA BEATRICE ANNE MARGARET ] (1658-1718), queen of the English
king James II., was the
daughter of Alphonso
IV., duke of Modena, and the Duchess Laura, of the Roman family
Martinozzi. She was born at Modena on the 5th of October 1658. Her
education was strict, and her own wish was to be a nun in a convent of the order of the Visitation founded by her
mother. As a princess she was not free to choose for herself, and
was selected, mainly by the king of France, Louis XIV., as the wife of James, duke of York, heir-presumptive to the English throne. The
duke had become a Roman Catholic, and it was a
point of policy with the French king to provide him with a Roman Catholic wife. Mary Beatrice
of Este was chosen partly on the
ground of her known religious zeal, but also because of her beauty.
The marriage was celebrated by proxy on the 30th of September 1673. She reached
England in November. In
later life she confessed that her first feelings towards her
husband could only be expressed by tears. In England the duchess,
who was commonly spoken of as Madam East, was supposed to be an agent of the pope, who had indeed exerted himself to secure her
consent. Her beauty and her fine manners secured her the respect of
her brother-in-law, Charles II., and she lived on good terms
with her husband's daughters by his first marriage, but she was
always disliked by the nation. The birth of her first son (who died
in infancy) on the 16th of January 1675 was regretted. During the
Popish Plot, to which her secretary Coleman was a victim, she went
abroad with her husband. After her husband's accession she suffered
much domestic misery through his infidelity. Her influence on him
was unfortunate, for she was a strong supporter of the Jesuit party
which was in favour of extreme measures. Her second son, James Francis
Edward, was born on the 10th of June (o.s.) 1688. The public
refused to believe that the baby was Mary's child, and declared
that a fraud had been
perpetrated to secure a Roman Catholic heir. When the revolution
had broken out she made the disastrous mistake of consenting to
escape to France (Dec. 10, 1688) with her son. She urged her
husband to follow her to France when it was his manifest interest to stay in England, and
whenhe went to Ireland she
pressed incessantly for his return. Her daughter, Louisa Maria, was
born at St Germain on the 28th of June 1692. When her husband died
on the 6th of September 1701, she succeeded in inducing King Louis
to recognize her son as king of England, an act which precipitated
the war of the Spanish
Succession. Queen Mary survived her husband for seventeen years
and her daughter for two. She received a pension of ioo,000 crowns, which was largely
spent in supporting Jacobite exiles. At the close of her life she
had some success in obtaining payment of her jointure. She lived at St Germain or at
Chaillot, a religious house of the Visitation. Her death occurred
on the 7th of May 1718, and is said by Saint-Simon to have been
that of a saint.

Mary was born as a princess of the Italian Duchy of Modena. She is mostly remembered for the birth of James Francis Edward. Most of the English people thought he was not really Mary's son. They believed he had been secretly brought into the birth-room in a warming-pan to continue King James II's Catholic rule. The privy council investigation declared that the story was false. However, James Francis Edward's birth was one of the reasons why the Glorious Revolution happened. In the Glorious Revolution, King James II was deposed by his daughter Mary and her husband William III of Orange.

The "Queen over the water"—as Jacobites (followers of James II) called Mary—was exiled to France. She lived with her family in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which Louis XIV of France had given her. Louis XIV's courtiers liked Mary, but thought James was not interesting. When James died, Mary spent a lot of time with the nuns at the Convent of Chaillot. When James II died in 1701, the Jacobites saw James Francis Edward as king. Because he was too young to rule, Queen Dowager Mary acted as regent until he became 16. Later, "James III" was forced to leave France because of the Treaty of Utrecht. This left Mary without any family in France (Princess Louise Mary had died of smallpox). Mary died of cancer in 1718. She was kindly remembered by the people in France at that time.

Contents

Early life (1658 - 1673)

Mary Beatrice d'Este was the older child of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena and his wife Laura Martinozzi. She was born on 5 October 1658 NS in Modena.[2] Her only sibling, Francesco, became a Duke when his father died in 1662. This was the year Mary became 4.[4] Mary and Francesco's mother Laura was firm with her children. She acted as regent of the duchy until her son grew older.[5][6] Mary's education was very good.[7] She spoke French and Italian well, and had a knew much of Latin and, later, English.[8][9]